SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty's Government are in possession of the additional Act to the Treaty of Cession of the Congo approved by the Belgian Government, and are aware that it leaves Article 1 of the treaty unaltered, save for the obligations attaching to the 1749 retention by Belgium of the Crown Domain, foundation, and that no fundamental change is proposed in the present system which disregards native rights in the soil or the products of the soil; and whether His Majesty's Government, in view of the assurances given to this House by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, will now make representations to the Belgian Government that terms of cession which do not provide for elementary native rights, and for the re establishment of commercial liberty, cannot be recognised by this Government.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYThe Answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative. His Majesty's Government have at this moment the additional Act under their consideration with a view to examining what effect it is likely to produce, if accepted in its present form, on the various questions at issue between them and the Congo Government. But the terms of the annexation of the Independent State by Belgium are still the subject of discussion and until the Bill has assumed its final shape I cannot promise a definite statement of what should be said about it.